LG Chem Ltd. (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

: LG화학), often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. It was the 10th largest chemical company in the world by sales in 2017. It was first established as the Lucky Chemical Industrial Corporation, which manufactured

cosmetics Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protec ...

. It is now solely a

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when: * A business is sourcing materials for their production process for output (e.g., a ...

company (consumer products division was spun off into

LG Household & Health Care LG Household & Health Care is a major South Korean consumer goods company that manages cosmetics, household goods, and beverages business. It is also the South Korean bottler of the Coca-Cola system. Summary History Founded in 1947, Koo In-H ...

). The company has eight factories in

and a network of 29 business locations in 15 countries. This network includes a holding company in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, 14 overseas manufacturing subsidiaries, five marketing subsidiaries, seven representative offices, and two R&D centers. The ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' reported on April 2, 2017, that LG Chem would be expanding

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

production in China. At the time, China accounted for one-third of the company's total sales. In April 2019, LG Chem sued rival SK Innovation for allegedly stealing trade secrets for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries.

Business and product areas

Current

LG Chem has three main business areas: * Petrochemicals * Advanced materials * Life sciences

Petrochemicals

LG Chem is a supplier of petrochemicals ranging from basic distillates to specialty

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

s. For example, it is a large producer of common

plastics Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptabi ...

such as

acrylonitrile butadiene styrene Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) ( chemical formula (C8H8)''x''·(C4H6)''y''·(C3H3N)''z'' is a common thermoplastic polymer. Its glass transition temperature is approximately . ABS is amorphous and therefore has no true melting point. ...

(ABS),

styrene-acrylonitrile resin Styrene acrylonitrile resin is a copolymer plastic consisting of styrene and acrylonitrile. It is also known as SAN. It is widely used in place of polystyrene owing to its greater thermal resistance. The chains of between 70 and 80% by weight styr ...

(SAN), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It also produces raw materials and liquids, including

plasticizer A plasticizer ( UK: plasticiser) is a substance that is added to a material to make it softer and more flexible, to increase its plasticity, to decrease its viscosity, and/or to decrease friction during its handling in manufacture. Plasticiz ...

s, specialty additives,

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

polyolefin A polyolefin is a type of polymer with the general formula (CH2CHR)n where R is an alkyl group. They are usually derived from a small set of simple olefins (alkenes). Dominant in a commercial sense are polyethylene and polypropylene. More speciali ...

acrylic acid Acrylic acid (IUPAC: propenoic acid) is an organic compound with the formula CH2=CHCOOH. It is the simplest unsaturated carboxylic acid, consisting of a vinyl group connected directly to a carboxylic acid terminus. This colorless liquid has a ...

synthetic rubber A synthetic rubber is an artificial elastomer. They are polymers synthesized from petroleum byproducts. About 32-million metric tons of rubbers are produced annually in the United States, and of that amount two thirds are synthetic. Synthetic rubb ...

, styrenics, performance polymers,

engineering plastic Engineering plastics are a group of plastic materials that have better mechanical and/or thermal properties than the more widely used commodity plastics (such as polystyrene, PVC, polypropylene and polyethylene). Being more expensive than ...

elastomer An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and Elasticity (physics), elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus and high Deformation (mechanics), failure strain compared with other mate ...

s, conductive resins, and other chemicals.

Advanced materials

LG Chem supplies display and optical films, polarizers, printed circuit materials, and

toner Toner is a powder mixture used in laser printers and photocopiers to form the printed text and images on paper, in general through a toner cartridge. Mostly granulated plastic, early mixtures only added carbon powder and iron oxide, however, ...

s. It also supplies LCD polarizers, which are multi-layer sheets of film applied to the top and bottom surfaces of

TFT-LCD A thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD) is a variant of a liquid-crystal display that uses thin-film-transistor technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in cont ...

panels to transmit the light from the backlight unit through the panel, and 3D FPR (

film-type patterned retarder FPR (Film-type patterned retarder) is a technology promoted by LG that is employed in its line of 3D televisions based on circular polarization. It shows left and right images through different patterns in a circular polarizer. Left/right polar ...

) film, which enables three-dimensional viewing.

Former

Energy solutions

LG Chem completed development and began mass production of Korea's first

lithium-ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...

back in 1999. At the end of 2011, LG Chem was the world's third-largest maker with an annual production capacity of 1 billion cells. It is also a supplier of automotive battery for electric vehicles, such as the Ford Focus, Chevrolet Volt and Renault ZOE. LG Chem Michigan is a wholly owned subsidiary of LG Chem based in

Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River (formerly known locally as the Black Ri ...

which operates a plant to manufacture advanced battery cells for electric vehicles. The million Holland plant received 50% of its funding from U.S. Department of Energy matching stimulus funds, and started manufacturing battery systems in 2013. The plant can produce enough cells per year to build between 50,000 and 200,000 battery packs for

electric car An electric car, battery electric car, or all-electric car is an automobile that is propelled by one or more electric motors, using only energy stored in batteries. Compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, electric cars are quiet ...

s and hybrids such as the

Chevrolet Volt The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid manufactured by General Motors, also marketed in rebadged variants as the Holden Volt in Australia and New Zealand and the Buick Velite 5 in China, and with a different fascia as the Vauxhall Ampera in th ...

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

, the

Ford Focus Electric The Ford Focus Electric is a 5-door hatchback electric car that was produced by Ford. The Focus Electric is Ford's second production all-electric vehicle (the first being the Ford Ranger EV), and was made from December 2011to May 2018. The Focu ...

, and upcoming

plug-in electric vehicle A plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) is any road vehicle that can utilize an external source of electricity (such as a wall socket that connects to the power grid) to store electrical power within its onboard rechargeable battery packs, which then ...

s from other carmakers. Its research and development arm, called LG Chem Power, is based in nearby

Troy, Michigan Troy is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, United States. Its population was 87,294 at the 2020 U.S. census, making Troy the most populous city in the county and the 13th most-populous municipality in the state. Troy is a northern suburb of Me ...

. LG Chem Power and LG Chem Michigan were originally one company called ''Compact Power, Inc.'' Both the Chevrolet Volt and the Ford Focus Electric initially used cells manufactured in Korea by parent LG Chem and then later switched to cells produced in LG Chem Michigan's Holland plant once it opened. In September 2020, LG Chem unveiled its plan to publicly list its energy division under the name of

LG Energy Solution LG Energy Solution, Ltd. (LGES; ) is a battery company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. LGES is one of the largest battery maker alongside CATL, Panasonic, SK Innovation, and Samsung SDI. History LG Chem Energy Solution Business Division (1 ...

by December.

Accidents and incidents

Visakhapatnam gas leak

On 7 May 2020, a gas leak incident that took place at the LG Polymer plant at Gopalapatnam on the outskirts of

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museu ...

resulted in the death of 12 people, hospitalization of over 300 and around thousands falling sick. Nearly 3000 people were evacuated from villages in five-kilometre radius of the plant. The gas reportedly started leaking around 2:30am when the workers were preparing to reopen the plant after the

lockdown A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison ...

ordered due

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

was relaxed in the region.

Seosan plant explosion

On 19 May 2020, an alkylaluminum-based catalyst powder exploded due to high-pressure while being transported at the packing room of the LG Chem plant at

Seosan Seosan () is a city in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, with a population of roughly 175,000 according to the 2017 census. Located at the northwestern end of South Chungcheong Province, it is bounded by Dangjin City, Naepo New Town, Yes ...

. The explosion exposed the

pyrophoric A substance is pyrophoric (from grc-gre, πυροφόρος, , 'fire-bearing') if it ignites spontaneously in air at or below (for gases) or within 5 minutes after coming into contact with air (for liquids and solids). Examples are organolith ...

powder to the air, causing a fire. As a result, a 39-year-old researcher died and two more workers suffered second-degree burns.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Auto parts suppliers of South Korea Chemical companies of South Korea Electric vehicle battery manufacturers Battery manufacturers Solar energy companies Silicon wafer producers Multinational companies headquartered in South Korea Technology companies of South Korea LG Corporation Companies listed on the Korea Exchange Manufacturing companies based in Seoul Chemical companies established in 1947 South Korean companies established in 1947 1960s initial public offerings